The present invention relates to a system and method for detecting hazardous materials on or inside articles and, more particularly, to a system and method for detecting hazardous materials on or in mail, by using two different detection methods, one for detecting hazardous materials and the other for recognizing mail with suspicious indicia on the envelope or other mail wrapper.
All economies depend upon the physical shipment of materials for their functioning including the shipment of mail, merchandise, raw materials, and other goods.
In some circumstances, it is desirable to subject the goods to some type of inspection to determine the presence of hazardous or impermissible materials, including biological and chemical materials. In general, sophisticated sensing systems are known for the detection of hazardous biological and chemical materials. For example, such systems can include conventional laboratory facilities as well as mobile or semi-mobile units that can automatically or semi-automatically detect the presence of the undesired substance or substances. Others include sensor or detectors for hazardous chemicals, explosives, illicit drugs, radioactive particles, and other hazardous materials. These sensors can be used single, or in combinations, to detect as many types of hazardous particles or vapors as required. It is desirable to have an accurate system for detection to reduce the number of false positives, the latter causing needless expense in the processing of the mail.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,246 for a system for detecting unaccounted for printing in a value printing system is for detecting fraudulent imprints on documents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,306 for a mail piece weight quality control system and method discloses a system for certifying the accuracy of postage payments based on the weight of mail pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,423 for a machine recognition of handwritten character strings such as postal zip codes or dollar amount on bank checks which discloses a system for recognizing a string of handwritten characters automatically using a graphic input.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,127 for a processing apparatus for mail with stamps discloses an automatic mail processing apparatus for detecting physical quantities of mail with a stamp and determining whether the postage is valid for the weight of the mail piece.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,438 for image processing discloses image processing apparatus for locating labels on images of parcels.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,671 for a method for improving cursive address recognition in mail pieces using adaptive data base management discloses such method using adaptive dictionary management which includes creating a number of word databases having the most frequently observed words in a particular portion of an address block derived from training data. Word images are compared to the database contents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,710 for a method an system for adaptively recognizing cursive addresses on mail pieces and is similar to the '671 patent discussed above.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,243 for a system for evaluating bar code quality on mail pieces discloses a system which includes an imaging device providing an image of a barcode or address and also detects barcode defects.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,147 for a method of verifying unreadable indicia for an information-based indicia program discloses such a method includes attempting to read a 2-D barcode using sophisticated digital image processing when the bar code is not readable and then using two independent processes to determine the correct information.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,450 for a method and apparatus for address block location discloses a system for locating address indicia on digitized images of mail pieces for real time operation on computers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,058,190 for method and system for automatic recognition of digital indicia images deliberately distorted to be non readable discloses an arrangement in which mail pieces are scanned and information is obtained about the printed data which information is processed to determine if it is readable, and if non readable an attempt is made to determine the cause of the non readability.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,373 for a method and system for tracking manually repaired mail pieces and the like discloses producing control documents with a data processing system and the mail piece are assembled in accordance with mail piece records identified by coded information on the documents and if a damaged mail piece is manually repaired and operator scans the coded information from the damaged mail piece.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,109 for a method and apparatus for processing mail pieces including means for identifying the location and content of data blocks thereon discloses apparatus for obtaining a digital bit map image of an outer surface of a mail piece to determine the type of data contained in the block.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,373 for a mail address reading apparatus and mail sorting apparatus discloses apparatus for determining a destination line when a zip code is not obtained at a likely location.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,484 discloses a method of verifying unreadable indicia for an information based indicia program and is related to the '147 patent discussed above.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,373,973 discloses a method and device for controlling valuable or security items such as banknotes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,457,642 for an automated system and method for identifying and measuring packages transported through a laser scanning tunnel discloses the reading of bar codes while information is obtain about the package and mathematical models are used to in such a manner as to enable simultaneous tracking of multiple packages being transported through the scanning tunnel.
U.S. Published Application No. US 2002/0106107 published Aug. 8, 2002 if for a machine vision system and triggering method in which a video camera is used to continuously obtain video images of features of interest and the images are compared to a signature image and when there is a match the camera is triggered to acquire a full frame image containing the feature of interest.
U.S. Published Application No. US 2002/0126008 published Sep. 12, 2002 discloses use of sensors at various locations within a typical mail processing system to sense the presence of a harmful agent.
U.S. Published Application No. US 2002/0124664 shows a mail processing system which includes the screening of mail for contamination by biological or chemical agents.
U.S. Published Application 2002/0141613 published Oct. 3, 2002 is for a method for determining if mail contains life harming materials. Mail pieces are scanned for analysis for possible threat based on: (1) whether the overall image of the mail piece is similar to previous ones known to be harmful, but no details are provided as to how this is accomplished; (2) whether the addressee is known to be at high-risk of receiving dangerous mail pieces; and (3) whether the person mailing the piece in known to send dangerous material through the mail.
However, this criteria is unlikely to locate mail sent by persons who may be sending hazardous material through mail systems.
Some prior attempts to solve the problem of locating hazardous materials sent through the mails use DNA amplification technique—Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)—based on a one hour sample collection time with 40-60 minute processing window. The test is very expensive and relatively slow.